Field
The present invention relates to glass-polymer laminates and, more particularly, to flexible glass-polymer laminates wherein the glass thickness is ≦500 microns.
Technical
Today flexible polymer substrates are manufactured using a polymer base material laminated with one or more polymer films. These laminated substrate stacks are commonly used in flexible packaging associated with PV, OLED, LCDs and patterned Thin Film Transistor (TFT) electronics because of their low cost and demonstrated performance.
In order to promote flexible glass structures as an alternate technology selection, the real and perceived limitations of mechanical reliability performance associated with glass, a brittle material, must be overcome and demonstrated. Flexible glass substrates already offer several technical advantages over flexible polymer technology. One technical advantage is the ability of the glass to serve as a moisture or gas barrier, a primary degradation mechanism in outdoor electronics. A second advantage is in its potential to reduce overall package size (thickness) and weight through the reduction or elimination of one or more package substrate layers. Thus, if the real and perceived limitations of mechanical reliability performance associated with glass can be overcome, the use of flexible glass structures can be advanced.